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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/19/2025 8:44 AM, Patent Lawyer via
Patentpractice wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:6451F5F8-1C0C-4E91-96A2-D82A72417797@gmail.com">Got this
notice last month to file corrected application papers (after
allowance). This notice was about replacement drawings I had
filed in December.
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">As far as I know, there is no more EFS-Web and there
is no legal framework for EFS-Web and there is no replacement
legal framework for PatentCenter. The Publications Branch
does not seem to know that.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Also, the drawings in the file wrapper looked just
fine to me. <br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, there are quite a few places in 2025 in various USPTO
documents and forms and web pages where EFS-Web and PAIR are
referred to. <br>
</p>
<p>The particular notice you received from the Publication Branch is
defective for the reasons you identified. But there is a deeper
problem. The deeper problem is that the Publication Branch is
dis-serving applicants by playing dumb and pretending they cannot
figure out what to do with a PDF file if it contains "layers".</p>
<p>I have gone around and around with people in the Publication
Branch about this playing dumb about "layers". Of course this was
back in the old days when it was actually possible to speak with a
human being in the Publication Branch. Nowadays, as we know, the
Publication Branch has an unlisted telephone number. Not only
that, if you look in the USPTO's online Employee Directory to try
to find a telephone number for the particular person who signed
the Notice, you will find a line of spaces where the telephone
number is supposed to appear. So you are stuck talking with the
(mis-named) "Application Assistance Unit". <br>
</p>
<p>But anyway, yes, layers. Now I will mention that absolutely
everyone who ever views or prints or otherwise makes use of a PDF
file with "layers" can effortlessly make use of the PDF file. So
for example:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>A person who prints a PDF file on a printer can do so without
any difficulty at all, even if (1) it has "layers" in it and (2)
the person has never heard of "layers" in a PDF file and had no
idea that the PDF file had "layers" in it. </li>
<li>If ten different people receive such a "layered" PDF file,
each running any of ten different computer operating systems and
each running any of ten different PDF applications, and each
having any one of ten different printers, each print it out, it
will look absolutely the same on the printer. (Note that the
same cannot be said of a Microsoft Word DOCX file.) Note that
this identical-on-the-printer result will obtain even if none of
the ten people ever heard of such a thing as "layers" in a PDF
file.<br>
</li>
<li>If somebody sends you a PDF file (with "layers" in it), you
can view the PDF file on your computer screen with no
difficulty. This works regardless of what kind of computer
display you have, or what operating system you are using. And
it works even if you have never heard of such a thing as
"layers" in a PDF file.</li>
</ul>
<p>In the old days of EFS-Web, if you were to upload a "layered" PDF
file to EFS-Web, then you would receive a warning (not an error
message) saying that your file contains layers, and then it would
merely suggest that you might want to flatten the file. But
EFS-Web would cooperate with you if you were to proceed with the
submission. EFS-Web would flatten the PDF file and the problem
would go away.</p>
<p>What should happen with Patent Center (and the Publication
Branch) and with a PDF file that happens to contain "layers" is
that Patent Center should not play dumb and pretend that it cannot
figure out how to do the same thing every printer does, which is
to flatten the PDF file as needed. Same thing for the Publication
Branch.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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